WHO WILL WIN CUSTODY OF A PET DOG? CANADIAN FAMILY LAW JUDGE ANSWERS FIGHTING OVER CUSTODY OF A PET IS STANDARD PROCEDURE FOR A LOT OF COUPLES THESE DAYS. ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE COUPLES? Fighting over who will or should win custody of a pet in your divorce case? Justice Richard Danyliuk of […]

A Buffalo New York judge issued the most interesting order in this family court case involving visitation and child support. The mother in the case is accused of having poisoned the children’s relationship with their father over the course of several years to the point that the children wanted nothing to do with their father. […]

In this case, the Supreme Court was petitioned to determine if a lesbian woman had any parental rights over her former lesbian spouse’s biological children. The lesbian couple were married in the state of Georgia and one partner (prior to marriage) had 3 children by in vitro. The other partner subsequently adopted the children and […]

In Francis v Francis, the wife appealed a decision in the lower court which required her to pay her husband 50 percent of the refund from their joint tax return. The problem is that the settlement agreement contained no language about her husband getting 50 percent of the return and so the wife helped herself […]

In a recent New York case Ballesteros v Ballesteros, the Appellate Division Second Department in New York declined to enforce a post nuptial agreement because the notary who signed the agreement failed to formally “acknowledge” the agreement. In this case the parties were married when the husband asked for a divorce then changed his mind. […]

Divorce & Surrogacy & “Equitable Maternity” – by Marion TD Lewis Divorce & surrogacy collide often these days and it seems that courts around the world are having a tough time figuring out all the legal logistics. It is a sign of our times. Increasingly, infertile, wealthy married couples are turning to assisted reproduction methods, including surrogacy, in order to have […]

Marian Levine is apparently not very happy with her divorce Judge, the Honorable Matthew Cooper of New York County Supreme Court. She wants, and the judge has declined to give her, a downward modification of the alimony spousal support order which right now is approximately $12k per month that she is forced to pay her […]

Frederick Borman v Kevin Pyles-Borman Family Lawyer Magazine reports that a judge in Tennessee has refused to give full faith and credit to a gay couple’s Iowa marriage and thus has refused to hear their divorce case: A same-sex couple was denied the ability to divorce in their residing state of Tennessee by a judge […]

Carlwig v Carlwig U.S. Dist. Ct. in the Central District of CA decides a controversial case using ICARA and other child abduction statutes including the Hague Convention and the UCCJEA . The interesting thing is that the child was born in California and was only months old. The child has an older sibling born in Sweden. […]

Sex in the Divorce An article I recently read about a draft bill in Massachusetts that proposes a ban on sex or dating in the marital residence without prior judicial consent pending the finalization of the divorce action, inspired this post. Can a judge legally forbid an adult, who happens to be in the midst of […]

An article on the Huffington Post gave me pause just now. The author Fred Silberberg stated that in New York you can get divorced and the public has no right to be there in the court room. That the court proceedings are not open to the public. I was not aware of that. I have […]

I confess that I don’t really know anything about Katy Perry. I’ve heard her name and I know she sings but beyond that, nada. Don’t follow the girl, couldn’t identify a song as being hers, and probably never will. But I know she’s huge and I see her in the gossip magazines and I know […]

NEW YORK DIVORCE & THE GIFT TAX With some exceptions, any transfer of property is subject to the gift tax, including transfers made pursuant to a settlement agreement in a divorce action. That is the general rule. So generally, your settlement agreement would, or is supposed to be, subject to the gift tax as prescribed by […]

The Justice Department appeals repeal of DOMA The Justice Department has filed an appeal in the First Circuit, appealing 2 Massachusetts rulings that basically finds DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) unconstitutional, on several fronts. The district court had found DOMA unconstitutional on several grounds: For one thing, it violates the Equal Protection Clause. But it […]

The demise of Elizabeth Edwards in 2011 inspired this post about divorce and inheritance rights. The question presented is what are surviving spouses like John Edwards’ rights, if any, to the estate of their deceased spouse? The rule may vary state to state, but in New York, as a general rule, the surviving spouse has […]